Creature Roles
Creature Roles are an unofficial classification of Creatures based on their strengths especially related to their base stats and their original three Creature Skills. The classic role archetypes are similar to other RPGs, fantasy games, and card games. Since Deck Heroes is a very unique game, advanced decks will often overlook classical roles entirely. New players, however, will benefit greatly by understanding Creature roles and how that affects creature placement and other tactical decisions. Five Main Archetypes The deck hero community has divided Creatures into four major archetypes to help define their overall capabilities. Below you will find information on how these roles are identified and how these types of cards can be used to their maximum potential. Fighter Fighter creatures are the most basic cards in Deck Heroes which focus mostly on their own strength to fight on the battlefield for you. Because this is the most broad definition for Creature Cards, more cards fall into this category than any other category. Fighters often have these traits: *High ATK and HP with Skills that increase their damage output, such as Battleblow or Ambush *Faction ATK Bonuses: Miasma, Bane, Ravage and Consecrate *Abilities that increase their own survivability without improving the rest of their team, such as Restoration *Abilities that improve their own damage at their expense of the team, such as Sacrifice A handful of good fighters is extremely important in most decks because they are your main source of Physical Damage. The best fighter, especially with additional support, can also go toe-to-toe against other fighters in left position, helping protect your other creatures from direct Physical Damage from the enemy team. Fighters should always occupy the left positions in your field, with the rare exception that you are using them to take out a specific enemy creature. It can help speed up battles by using Fighters in the 1st position instead of a dedicated tank, if the fighter is doing enough damage to kill the enemy creatures. Tank Tank creatures are extremely important cards in Deck Heroes which focus on both surviving and protecting other Creatures from harm. Because of their toughness, they are the most important cards for many types of decks in Deck Heroes. Tanks often have these traits: *Above-Average HP and Skills that reduce incoming physical damage, such as Block or Frost Armor *Protection from magic damage, such as Immunity or Maji Shield *HP Regeneration Techniques such as Soul Swap, Restoration or Mass Heal The most important factor in using a tank is placement. Tanks can drastically reduce heavy-hitting fighters' damage output when placed directly across from them, and with skills like Frost Armor, a tank can nullify a huge threat like a Venom Tyrant. Well-placed tanks can also add protection to nearby cards, especially when enemies have Sweeping Blow. Support Support creatures are cards which mostly focus on strengthening the rest of your deck or disrupting the enemy instead of dealing damage or fighting themselves. They often have aspects of Fighter or Tank or Casters mixed in, but the sign of a good support is the card that can turn the tide of battle without having to do damage at all. Supports generally have some of these traits: *Lower HP and ATK than Fighters *Aura-based Buffs that strengthen the stats of the rest of your deck, such as Sprite Link or Safeguard *Heals for other or all Creatures, such as Mass Heal or Holy Light *Heals for your Hero, generally Bless *Disruptive abilities for enemy lines, such as Retreat or Death Gaze *Debuffs for enemy creatures, such as Fatigue *Lock-downs and delays for the enemy team, such as Seals or *Revival abilities for bringing dead creatures back to life, such as Recycle or Healing Breath Since the definition of a support creature is so open-ended, this is often the hardest card type to classify. The job-types of supports is varied enough that best placement can truly be anything, but for a standard support you'll want to keep them further right, past the tanks and fighters so that they can live longer and continue to buff, heal or debuff throughout the battle. Caster Caster creatures are cards which focus on dealing Magic or Direct damage through skills, generally not targeting the card in front of them but targeting a specific creature or creatures at random. Casters usually have these traits: *Lower HP and ATK than Fighters *Magic Skills based on Fire, Lightning or Frost that do more damage than Physical strikes *Multi-target, Assassinate or Hero-Killer Skills such as Incinerate, Picking-Off, or Curse Caster creatures by definition do most of their damage to other creatures on the board through skills and therefor can be completely to the right on the battlefield. It is often best to play them even past the supports, where they will have as little contact with enemy creatures as possible. Special Special creatures are cards that bring something extremely special and valuable to the battlefield, generally a "global" effect that changes how the game is played while they're on the battlefield. Examples of Special Skills include: *Creating an endless army of clones through skills like Soul Split *Eliminating enemy cards through Disposal *Locking the graveyard through skills like Torment *Global Lockdowns and Silences through skills like Spellbinder The special archetype is not a catchall for cards that don't seem to fit anywhere else. This elite identification is only for cards so unique and powerful that they stand on their own without any other explanation. Sub-Types To help further delineate between some specific traits and skill-sets, the following Creature Roles have been included to help group similar cards. Assassin Assassins are generally caster creatures that are specifically designed to deal most of their damage to through the unique Assassinate and Picking Off skills. This sub-type was created because there are enough cards that fit this description and they all have a number of things in common. Assassins are unique because they will always focus the targets closest to death and will bypass defense with Direct Damage. Assassins generally have these traits: *Low HP *Multiple Assassinate or Picking-Off Skills Many Assassins are portrayed as Archers in the cards, which is a fitting identification since they are most deadly out of range. Hero-Killer Hero-Killers are Caster or Fighter-type creatures that focus primarily on killing the enemy hero directly on-top of or as an alternative to dealing damage to the enemy Creatures Hero-Killer Skills include: *Curse (and Single-Use Versions) *Godswill *Stabthrough *Hero-Hunter Hero-Killers are specialized and are generally only useful in a Deck specifically designed to kill the enemy Hero. Lock-Down Lock-Down creatures are any creatures that focus primarily on delaying the enemy creatures' attacks instead of dealing damage. Many Lock-Down skills are also caster skills, however low ranked versions of these skills often do low damage but maintain a high lock-down rate. Identifying the difference between a caster and a Lock-Down can usually be easy if you look at the potential damage output. Lock-Down creatures generally have these traits: *Low HP *Produce relatively poor damage with Lightning or Frost skills, such as Cloudburst 2 *Have Offensive or Defensive Lightning or Frost skills, such as Venom Edge or Flurry Tank Killer Tanks killers are creatures with the unique Bullseye, Chainstrike, and Trample Abilities that Ignore Dodge, Frost armor, or Immunity (In rare cases). These cards a specialized fighters, designed to take out heavy tanks for your team to advance. Tank killers usually have these traits * Without the Tank Killer Creature skills, they are normally Support or Fighters. * Higher ATk but lower HP then most cards. Tank killers should be melded with Battleblow or Sacrifice to increase their damage output. The Rune for Bullseye is also specially built for this purpose. It increases the card's damage output by 10-100% when targeting a creature with Dodge or Frost Armor. Category:General Gameplay Category:Creature Roles